Cuomo, legislators announce NY budget deal

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and legislative leaders announced a “conceptual” agreement on a state budget last night.

Some specifics were released at an 8 p.m. press conference, but many significant details and issues remain unresolved. Budget legislation was still being printed this morning, setting up votes over the weekend.

Here are a few important highlights for business, though even these are still incomplete as of now:

New York’s minimum wage would grow 25 percent over three years, rising from the present $7.25 an hour to top out at $9 as of the start of 2016. Cuomo and legislators have not agreed whether the base wage for tipped workers, such as waiters, will also increase.

The budget will extend, for at least three more years, higher tax rates for millionaires, impacting 32,000 tax returns. This is a development that caught business lobbies by surprise.

The budget will include tax credits and tax breaks for businesses valued at $300 million a year—when fully put in place. It appears that will not occur until three or four years from now. It's also not known what taxes will be cut, and which types of businesses will benefit.

For one more year, the budget keeps alive higher taxes on utilities, which are passed on to consumers, adding $500 million to their bills each year. The tax would then gradually go away starting in 2014, even though it was supposed to be totally gone by that point.

Something unknown is whether there will be new restrictions on the tax exemptions offered to businesses by industrial development agencies, or IDAs.

“It’s part of the agreement,” Cuomo said. Meanwhile, his budget director could be heard saying, “It’s still under discussion.”